BSP to double real-time cash transfer ceiling to P100,000

MANILA, Philippines — The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) is set to double the ceiling on real-time cash transfers to P100,000 per transaction from the current threshold of P50,000 per transaction.

BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said in an interview with reporters the regulator is looking at expanding the InstaPay by raising the P50,000 limit per transaction.

“It could be raised to P100,000,” Diokno said.

InstaPay allows customers to transfer peso funds of up to P50,000 per transaction almost instantly between accounts of participating banks.

It is one of the two automated clearing houses under the National Retail Payment System (NRPS) launched by the BSP in December 2015 as part of massive efforts to raise the share of digital payments or cashless transactions to 20 percent by 2020 from the previous level of one percent.

The other clearing house of the safe, efficient, affordable, and reliable electronic payments system is the PESONet (Philippine EFT System and Operations Network) that allows fund transfer processed in bulk and cleared at batch intervals from one account to one or several accounts maintained in different banks within the same banking day.

Latest data from the BSP showed digital transactions coursed through PESONet and InstaPay reached P109 billion as of end-June. PESONet transactions amounted to P88.1 billion as volume reached 916,793, while InstaPay transactions reached P20.92 billion with 2.47 million transactions.

“These payment systems allow funds to be transferred electronically from one financial institution to another. Most of the big banks are already participating in PESONet and InstaPay. Soon, we expect more banks, particularly the smaller ones, to participate and further boost electronic payments,” Diokno said.

According to Diokno, PESONet has 51 participating institutions, while InstaPay has 43 financial institutions.

Diokno said NRPS is built on three core principles namely interoperability, inclusiveness and “coopetition.”

Through the NRPS, Diokno said regulated institutions are required to adopt transparent and fair market pricing of electronic payments, transition from exclusive bilateral to multi-party clearinghouse agreements and provide electronic fund transfer facilities in all available channels, among others.

“It is a critical platform that will establish an interoperable ecosystem allowing seamless electronic fund transfers and payments between and among accounts. It aims to promote a cash-lite economy and ultimately improve the country’s economic competitiveness,” he said.

Diokno said the central bank is confident of meeting its target of raising the share of digital payments to 20 percent by 2020 from only one percent in 2013.

“I am fairly confident that we will reach 20 percent by 2020, if not exceed. These things are very dynamic. In five years time, we will probably reach 50 percent,” Diokno said.